Partisan? I’ll Show You Partisan

So, yesterday being Monday and all, I went to read Krugman. Except, I’m now an iPhone owner. With fat fingers. And somehow I wound up on a Maureen Dowd editorial.

Ghastly Outdated Party

”IT’S finally sinking in.

Republicans are getting queasy at the gruesome sight of their party eating itself alive, savaging the brand in ways that will long resonate. ”

”The contenders in the Hester Prynne primaries are tripping over one another trying to be the most radical, unreasonable and insane candidate they can be. They pounce on any traces of sanity in the other candidates — be it humanity toward women, compassion toward immigrants or the willingness to make the rich pay a nickel more in taxes — and try to destroy them with it. ”

(I had to look it up too. Don’t feel bad. Hester Prynne -- The Scarlet Letter.)

”Republicans have a growing panic at the thought of going down the drain with a loser, missing their chance at capturing the Senate and giving back all those House seats won in 2010. More and more, they openly yearn for a fresh candidate, including Jeb Bush, who does, after all, have experience at shoplifting presidential victories at the last minute. ”

Now, there’s a partisan zinger if there ever was one.

”Santorum, whose name aptly comes from the same Latin root as sanctimonious, went on Glenn Beck’s Web-based show with his family and offered this lunacy: “I understand why Barack Obama wants to send every kid to college,” because colleges are “indoctrination mills” that “harm” the country. He evidently wants home university schooling, which will cut down on keggers. ”

You get the idea.

You can call Paul Krugman a partisan -- he calls himself a liberal right in the title of his blog -- The Conscience of a Liberal. But there is picking sides and then there is partisan.

I suspect the Republican partisans don’t fret too much about Maureen Dowd. I bet Krugman keeps them up at night. I bet he keeps some Democratic partisans up at night too.

Don Brown
February 28, 2012